Is the truth becoming illegal?

By Mike Kaufmann

On September 21, 2006, a great injustice involving two of the most influential men in the history of baseball was committed, when a federal judge sentenced Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams to 18 months in prison for not revealing their sources.

Fainaru-Wada and Williams are the writers of Game of Shadows, the controversial book that detailed extensive steroid use by many of today's best players.

This event turned my stomach for two reasons. First, I felt a strong reaction as a journalist. I don't understand how two guys who simply reported what was going on are going to prison for protecting the people that disclosed the information about steroids in the first place.

Had Fainaru-Wada and Williams told their source that they would reveal his or her identity, the source wouldn't have shared anything and many of a great truth would have gone unknown.

Trust is the most important ingredient between reporters and their sources. If the two Chronicle reporters spilled the beans, future sources almost certainly wouldn't come to light for fear of being exposed.

The second part that gets to me is the fact that these guys made positive improvements for the entire professional sports arena and yet they are being punished.

In the months since the book was released, we've seen baseball's steroid policy become far stricter than it's ever been. Gene Upshaw, Executive Director of the NFL Player's Association, and Roger Goodell, the new NFL commissioner, have been holding meetings to implement a drug policy for the NFL.

Almost every professional athletic league is doing what it can to help eliminate steroids and thus put every player back on an even playing field.

This was all started because of the reporting that Fainaru-Wada and Williams did. And for that same reporting, those two are going to jail.

Perhaps the most alarming aspect of this ordeal is that Fainaru-Wada and Williams could spend more time in jail than those who made the steroids, dealt the drugs or those who actually used the performance enhancers.

If something like this can happen to those who uncover such wrongdoing, what motivation would anybody have to do the same in the future?

The ruling was wrong, and every second they spend in prison will be a travesty.

Contact Mike Kaufmann at (408) 551-1918 or mlkaufmann@scu.edu.